Titanomachina Report and Analysis

The deployment is Styxx configuration 5, nee configuration 2, two plasma shotguns and a macro gun, two big arms, two digitigrade legs, a thruster, a turret, a capacitor, two deflectors, three sensors, three extra armour, and a standard crew. This Styxx starts with 17 habitats on the board.

Arranged against this is Rhea configuration 3, two laser batteries, a macro gun, and a hand, two arms, two plantigrade legs, two sponsors, two shields, one sensor, five extra armour, and a standard crew as well. This Rhea starts with 22 habitats on the board. 

Styxx is Rapacious, Rhea is Gracious. Styxx therefore has the initiative. 

Rhea telegraphs either a heavy punch or a tall building, and Styxx steps into cover, knowing that this will waste Rhea's heavy punch, or exhaust Rhea's lone sensor for three more rounds. Activating Her own master crew, Styxx detects a tall, four-habitat somewhere that is risky for Rhea to shoot, nearly the opposite arc from Rhea's macro gun. However, instead Rhea makes a play for position, using the master crew to operate Rhea's legs, swinging around behind Her own cover and ready to come out swinging.

Styxx brandishes Her turret, and Rhea, taking a moment to scan the battle-field takes notice and the initiative!

Rhea operates an arm with an Initiate crew member, using it to swing forward in front of a block of buildings, and out in front of Styxx. Fortune favours the one with armour! Styxx has Her own Initiate crew blast Rhea with the macro gun. Thanks to Rhea's preparation, blocking the shot with Her armoured right side and intercepting the shot with a shield from Her left back, the shot only wings Her, hammering the presented right side, and bursting shields, but only doing light damage to Rhea's armour. Rhea has even used the impact of the attack to slew starboard and lay Her own macro gun for a reply. This macro gun is operated by an Adherent crew and does far more than light damage to the right side of Styxx, destroying all of it's armour, bursting shields, and knocking Styxx askew. Styxx turns this into a right arm-driven power slide to the left, determined to bring Rhea into range of Her plasma shotguns. Rhea activated Her sensor and notes that the line of sight is blocked by a hitherto undetected yellow habitat.

Rhea moves right, matching Styxx and working to maintain that 4 tile sweet spot where Styxx's plasma shotguns are ineffective, and Rhea's laser batteries can carve Her up. Styxx is still moving through, moving left faster than Rhea can track with Her left-shoulder laser battery, which perforated a green habitat instead. Spotting another green habitat, Styxx is ready when Rhea changed tack and closes sensor-to-macro gun with Styxx; Styxx has Her Adherent crew take careful aim before Rhea blocks the stream of giga-voltage plasma with Her left side, reducing Her shields to 40%, and taking heavy damage to Her armour. The shock to Rhea's own power system sees Her hull crawl with snakes of lightning. Styxx now engages Her right leg, swinging around behind Rhea and outflanking Her!

Suddenly going into reverse as Rhea tenses with Her Master crew at the controls, Styxx backs up between two blocks and dares Rhea to kick Her. Rhea obliges, stepping up to deliver a hard crack to Styxx's left shin, hoping to avoid another plasma shotgun blast. Instead, Styxx fires Her thrusters, leaping over a building to relative safety as Rhea's Initiate crew take over.

Now Styxx is in trouble. She's not out of danger yet. She's up against the edge of the board and low on power, deflectors and armour down to 50%. As Rhea reaches out to seize Styxx, She slips under the yellow Titan's reach, working to distance Herself from being unceremoniously ejected from the battlefield. However, it was a feint, as Rhea's Adherent crew operated Rhea's right-should laser battery, its dual-beams carving Styxx's left leg clean off, for a technical knock-out!

Styxx is defeated 27-23, in the sixth-round. I haven't used Rhea configuration 3 in a long while and while I've been thinking about the potential of those dual laser batteries, it's interesting to experience the down-sides. Rhea is heavily armoured, maybe even excessively so, and perhaps that is actually an advantage, but the arms and plantigrade legs mean Rhea is either hitting hard, or moving fast, or detecting tall buildings. Styxx can combine moving and hitting more effectively, and detect multiple small buildings. Detecting large buildings is a trap, because they can usually be seen from far away, are efficiently leveled, and require a Master crew to spot the vast and obvious building. Operated by initiate crew, sensors can detect two-habitat buildings that can block line of site to Styxx. Likewise they can be used to detect enemy Titans behind known cover. 

Which isn't to say Styxx is easy to use, but that this configuration 5 looks it needs to play for time, and attack an opponent's city rather than their Titan directly. Shooting an opposing Titan in the face with a plasma shotgun is not a trap though, despite the temptation of it. Shooting anyone with such a weapon is a sound tactic, but it needs senior crew. Already a highly powerful weapon, it's also efficient at causing damage for its charge cost. Having a pair should be treated more like having one with a 180 arc. 

I think it's an interesting idea to maybe use Styxx's crew members on Styxx's capacitor. Two plasma shotguns, a Master crew, and a capacitor recovering all five charge cards to press a card advantage. My point is, I think I need to run Styxx the next time I play...

Titanomachina: Plasma Drivers

 I was reminded that I had commissioned art that hadn't been used yet in Titanomachina. Originally, the notion was that the weapon was supposed to be a short-ranged hybrid of armour piercing and high explosive traits, but I think it can be repurposed as something more like a hybrid between a plasma shotgun and a jump jet. The difference between a plasma weapon and a jump jet using plasma for thrust is basically matter of containment and cavitation. 

In this case the downwards-facing arrow icon is the Recoil trait, pushing a Titan activating the system with each attack as if it were itself struck by an Impact weapon. At full attacks it can push itself back three tiles. Crew operating the weapon won't increase this, but the damage from collisions could be catastrophic, with destroyed systems being allocated to the opponent with the lowest current score. 

The weapon also features a staggering cost of three cards to charge it, which is both only one card more than the cost of activating plasma weapons and jump jets, and another system that won't be activated for another four rounds. 

I think the first Titan to be armed with this weapon should be Eurybia, although perhaps naturally enough it it may be  something for Eos and their dual capacitors.

Titanomachina: Room for Improvement

One might think that Titanomachina has been honed to a fine edge, and while that may be the case, there is definitely some room for improvement. 

There might be an issue with allowing players to avoid activating systems, particularly given how having more cards in one's hand is a distinct advantage. I'm not entirely convinced this is an issue, but I must admit that it can be irksome to know that you can reveal your entire hand to an opponent and have nothing to defend with if they're willing to play enough unactivated systems. Of course, one can work to maintain card parity with one's opponents, or simply to make them regret not activating systems. 

A good rule of thumb is that you should be able to gradually increase the cards in your hand, bluff the other players to get them to waste cards, or simply knock the cards out of them with shock weaponry. 

At the other end of the rule book:

The shin-kicking optional rule is an optional rule and it would be better to build in a special rule to the general rules about selecting targets within arcs, since requiring players to pay one cog to turn a Titan 45 degrees in order to enable a kick is counter-intuitive to many players, and explaining you can only kick an opposing Titan in the legs makes one wonder how to welcome an opponent to Sparta. 

I think allowing leg systems, mounted to the leg stack, to count as mounted to the corresponding arm stack for the purpose of attack arcs might be a way to simplify this. They will attack like arms. Plus it opens up cross-body kicks, while requiring sponsors or turrets for back-kicks.

Mind you, the nice part about shin-kicking is, of course, being able to kick your opponent in their own legs. 

Reacting to Collisions

Oh, and being able to react to collisions as if they were attacks also simplifies a special rule in the main case. Players should indeed be able to mount a defense of the flying body slam, flying elbow, and flying knee. We know what happens when the moving Titan can't force the other Titan back due to buildings in the way, and if that lands a Titan on a building.

Grappling

It works, but what if the direction isn't just 90 degrees left or right? You kind of need to catch someone napping to push them through a building, and the positioning is pretty transparent. Occasionally the deployment of a sponson may take someone from surprise, but that's again focusing on something that can be prevented with a single cog of walking. Probably good to team claws up with another weapon or sensor to be used in case of a retreating target.

But think about the things that could be done if you could pull a Titan into the hexes left or right, not just front left and front rite? Or, alternative, introduce a new weapon system that can pull Titans towards each other. I've certainly had ideas for weapons that push the attackers around (the kzinti weapon). That last one though, I think I may have a model for that. 

Titanomachina: Eos vs Tethys

Rapacious Tethys has gone to investigate the a new development in the southern hemisphere of Gaia, one where Her remote sensors suggest the conurbations of other Titans are infringing on Her territory, but She finds gracious Eos there waiting for Her, ready to claim it for Themselves. Tethys has chosen Her tertiary configuration of digitigrade legs, capacitor, dual sponsons, dual gun batteries, macro laser and claw. Eos is in Their secondary configuration of macro gun, laser battery, and hand. 

Tethys has the initiative, but Eos isn't planning on letting Tethys exploit it and goes for the ambush. 

Realising that Eos means business, Tethys slides into cover. It turns out Eos was detecting a vast tower of blue habitats!

Now the chase begins in earnest, with Eos attempting to line up a volley of laser fire, and slicing down buildings rather than Tethys. 

Now it's time for Tethys to attempt to ambush the ambusher, but Eos swings around left instead of right, lining up a shot with Their macro gun!

Seeing how Tethys is tensing for a crew-operated explosion of action, Eos turns to present Their heaviest shields to Tethys, but open seeing the subtle body-language of multiple crew members, jumps to relative safety at the edge of the board. Tethys pursues!

Now Eos steps back and left coming alongside Tethys to deliver some punishment, but that's Tethys' plan as well and when the attack turns out to be a feint, pushes Eos back up against the edge of the battlefield with a punishing fusillade of gunfire!

Eos can't risk a ring out, and comes about to return fire, first a burst of macro gun fire to break shields and armour, and then another salvo of laser beams focused on Tethys' leg in the hopes of slicing it off. Tethys is prepared, intercepting some beams with shields previously focused on Her rear and blocking others with shields over Her own macro laser, and She seizes the initiative!

The Titans pause to let the dust settle a bit, charging themselves for the final push before the ceasefire order comes down from the orbiting Hecatoncheires.

Now Eos makes a push, coming in swinging, with a hard right elbow hammer hammering Tethys back through the yellow and green habitats behind Her, and following up with jump jets to smash Their macro gun through Tethys' starboard gun battery. Tethys is not idle though, and cognisant of the strategic position hammers down the first tall blue building while detecting a pink building nearby. Eos tries to grapple Tethys, but only succeed in pulling Her around to face Them!

Now Tethys goes after Eos' other tall building, and while Eos detects a third such tower amidst the billowing clouds of ash and pulverised concrete, the second is sent crashing down with a tectonic crash! Eos sees an opening, however, and makes one last ditch attempt to push Tethys off of the battlefield before the hammer comes down, and it fails at the last. While Eos batters Her, Tethys detects more pink habitats far across the flattened rubble of the battlefield, and carries the day! 

The final score is 22-20, for Tethys! Tethys' detected 22 pink habitats to Eos' 18, and suffered only the loss of a gun battery (2VP). Glory to Tethys and Her crew!